One of the persons detained and later released by the Narcotics Control Bureau after the drug bust in a cruise ship off Mumbai was a relative of a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Nawab Malik claimed on Thursday, according to NDTV.
Malik told NDTV that he would release a video on Friday to prove his allegations. However, in a tweet later in the day, the spokesperson said that he had rescheduled to Saturday a press conference at which he had planned to release this evidence.
“I am collecting more data and information to expose the wrongdoings of the NCB and therefore I am rescheduling my Press Conference,” he said.
The case pertains to a Narcotics Control Bureau raid on October 3 during which eight people, including actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, were detained. Khan and others were first sent to the central agency’s custody but remanded in judicial custody for 14 days on Thursday.
On his fresh allegations, he told NDTV that National Control Bureau’s zonal director Sameer Wankhede had said that 8-10 people were taken into the central agency’s custody following the raids. He pointed out that only eight were produced before the court.
“An officer who conducted the raid is giving vague statements,” Nationalist Congress Party leader claimed. “Either it was eight or 10 [people detained]. Today, I am very sure that 10 people were detained that day. The NCB let off two people – one was the person who called everyone to the cruise ship for the raid but ended up being detained, and the other was an in-law of a BJP leader.”
On Wednesday, Malik had alleged that a BJP leader, Manish Bhanushali, and a private detective, KP Gosavi, were part of the central agency’s raid. The Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson had questioned whether the Narcotics Control Bureau has the authority to allow private citizens to take part in raids or to take their help for such operations.
The NCP spokesperson had also released two videos showing the purported involvement of the two men in the raid.
On Thursday, Malik alleged that the actions of the central agency were aimed at defaming the state government. The Nationalist Congress Party is in a ruling coalition with the Congress and BJP’s former ally, the Shiv Sena, in Maharashtra.
“From Rhea Chakraborty to Deepika Padukone, other celebrities or Aryan Khan, the NCB will only act wherever there is publicity involved,” he told NDTV. “Many of the cases are fake; no recovery has been made.”
The Narcotics Control Bureau had arrested Chakraborty on September 8 last year in a drugs case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. She was accused of procuring drugs for Rajput and the central agency had called her an “active member of a drug syndicate”. Chakraborty was granted bail in October last year.
Padukone, along with other actors such as Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan, were also questioned in the drugs case.
On Thursday, Malik claimed that the anti-drugs agency was never involved in publicity till last year.
“They are working to defame the government and Bollywood, and trying to make a fake case of nexus between Bollywood and politicians,” he told NDTV. “This is a big conspiracy to defame the government and mislead the press.”
The spokesperson also alleged that the central agency has not seized any drugs from the cruise ship. “Photographs of so-called seized items are taken at the NCB’s office only and sent out as ‘media sources’,” Malik alleged.
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